Welcome to Lighthouse’s Tribute to Leonard Cohen – ‘Tower of Song’

‘There’s a lover in the story But the story’s still the same There’s a lullaby for suffering And a paradox to blame But it’s written in the scriptures And it’s not some idle claim You want it darker We kill the flame’

– From one of Leonard Cohen’s last recorded songs from 2016, ‘You Want It Darker

A whole year has passed since Leonard Cohen left this world for some other mysterious place that may not be as bathed in sunshine and luminous blue skies as some would have us believe. It may, as Leonard imagined in one of his last songs, be darker.

Leonard Cohen died on November 7th, 2016 and as a tribute to him, an amazing cast of artists, from Elvis Costello and K.D. Lang to Lana Del Ray, Ron Sexsmith and Sting, gathered in Montreal this November 6th for a concert celebrating his life and brilliant library of poetry and songs.

Earlier this year, we lost another great Canadian artist, Skip Prokop, who was one of the founders and front men for one of the country’s greatest bands, Lighthouse.

Skip Prokop loving his work fronting Lighthouse from his seat behind his drums

Niagara At Large posted a tribute piece to Skip Prokop this past September 10th which received a response from Brenda Hoffert, wife of another Lighthouse co-founder Paul Hoffert, who had this news to provide about an upcoming Lighthouse video tribute to Leonard Cohen –

“In 2014, Skip retired from performing with Lighthouse due to ill health. Fortunately, his son Jamie was waiting in the wings.”

“You can see both Skip and Jamie in a new Lighthouse video ( below) – a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Tower of Song. An acoustic version was performed for him when he received the Glenn Gould prize in 2012.”

We decided to record the song as a Leonard Cohen tribute after he died. The video incorporates footage from the 2012 performance with footage shot during the recent recording. The song was produced by multi-award winning producer, Bob Ezrin. It will be released this fall, along with Sunny Days, on Universal’s Music’s,”Canada 150: A Celebration of Music”.

So here, as another tip of the hat to both Leonard Cohen and Skip Prokop, you can watch and hear that Lighthouse performance of Leonard’s ‘Tower of Song,’ with Leonard in the room, enjoying the performance.-

Finally,here is some news from CBC on how you can catch that Montreal tribute concert to Leonard Cohen, as soon as this Tuesday, November 7th evening on CBC Radio 2, on radio and TV–

If you can’t make it to Monday’s star-studded Leonard Cohen tribute concert at the Bell Center, you’re in luck! CBC/Radio-Canada will broadcast Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen the next day, Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio 2, CBCMusic.ca, ICI MUSIQUE and ICIMusique.ca.

The concert will also be televised on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018 at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) on CBC and ICI RADIO-CANADA TÉLÉ.

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One response to “Welcome to Lighthouse’s Tribute to Leonard Cohen – ‘Tower of Song’”

Wow — it’s been a whole year since Leonard left us…or, rather, since he “moved on to a tower down the track…” And I don’t know about you but I still hearing him singing in that wonderful deep dark lugubrious voice filled with pain, pathos, and the occasional wonderful self-parody (“I was born with the gift of a golden voice”) that made us all love him. Leonard’s is the voice of experience that has enriched but never hardened the heart. What a marvellous gift he was and what a legacy he has left us in his writing and his music. Love you always, Leonard Cohen.